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In the Windy City this is what qualifies as hard times for the local hockey heroes.

An offence that isn’t exactly hitting on all cylinders in these early days of the 2013-14 season. A pair of tight losses to their archrivals from St. Louis in the opening days of the season.

Yeah, a real nightmare.

Even with those two losses to the Blues the Chicago Blackhawks team that will host the 6-2 Maple Leafs on Saturday night seems to be a likelier candidate to repeat than was the case with the 2010 champions.

This team wasn’t stripped down because of salary cap problems.

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The key players — Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook — are now three years older and more committed than ever to their craft, and the goalie who won the Stanley Cup is back.

So no evidence of any Cup hangover — at least not yet.

This, as Dave Nonis said on the eve of the season, is the kind of team he hopes the Leafs will become somewhere down the road — a team that wins hockey games any which way you want to play them.

Physical? No problem — and the Hawks certainly handled the brawny Bruins for all the glory last spring. Fast, high-skill games? Check. Low-scoring, tight matches? Most of the time the Hawks hold their own.

So after a fluky bounce loss to Carolina on Thursday at home — given the way in which the Leafs have been winning despite some gaping holes in their game it’s hard to see that as a hard-luck loss — this shapes up as an early season litmus test for Randy Carlyle’s crew.

The team has several key injuries, with goalie James Reimer now added to the list. David Clarkson still hasn’t played a game yet and this Leaf team is allowing an average of 35 shots per game — third worst in the league — while managing only about 28 themselves which is in the bottom third of the league.

All that suggests Saturday night could be a rough one against a Chicago team looking to break out.

Still unbeaten on the road after wins in Montreal, Philadelphia and Nashville, the Leafs bring ex-Hawk hero David Bolland with them as they try to prove they really belong with the elite teams of the league.

If there’s anything ailing the 4-1-2 Hawks it’s an offence that has yet to start humming. Chicago has only scored more than three goals in a game once this season. Brandon Pirri’s first NHL goal got them rolling on Thursday against the Blues. But Marian Hossa on a breakaway was the only other Hawk who could score on Jaroslav Halak — including in the shootout, where Chicago couldn’t score at all.

Bolland, of course, was shipped to the Leafs for draft picks at least partly because of the need for the Hawks to sign playoff sniper Bryan Bickell, who potted nine goals in 23 post-season matches last spring.

For that Bickell got a four-year, $16 million contract and Bolland, Viktor Stalberg and Michael Frolik were deleted to help make room.

Well, so far the investment has been a poor one for the Hawks.

Despite playing on the top line with Toews and Kane, Bickell has yet to score this season and has only eight shots in seven games. Against the Blues he had none in 17:09 of playing time and remains stuck at one assist on the season.

So that, in a nutshell, is the extent of Chicago’s troubles.

Can’t beat the Blues (so far). Offence is a little snoozy. Bickell finding the new contract a little heavy on the shoulders.

Otherwise the Hawks have allowed only 18 goals in seven games, so that part of their game is intact. And the fact they were able to keep most of their lineup from the 2013 playoffs in place is bad news for the rest of the league.

The days when the Leafs and Hawks were combative divisional rivals are long gone and the only shame is that Detroit couldn’t bring Chicago with it to the Eastern Conference this season to renew that rivalry.

Still, these are Original Six cousins and the Hawks are the standard against which Nonis, at least, is measuring his young team.

The Leafs may have the offensive firepower to match up with Chicago, but do they have the ability to prosper in a tighter, hard-checking playoff-style game?

So far most would guess they don’t. Saturday night would be a good night to prove that they do.

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